The utilisation of audio reproduction in a cinema type environment is well known in the art. Examples of popular reproduction formats include the Dolby® Digital format and the DTS format.
In the Dolby® Digital format, the cinema track is recorded in a five channel format for reproduction over five speakers. The five channel format includes a front left, front centre and front right channel and a rear left and right channel. The input audio format is designed for reproduction in a cinema type environment where five speakers are placed around an audience. An example of the format is illustrated schematically in FIG. 1 wherein, in a cinema environment 1, two audience members 2A and 2B are placed with five speakers 3–7 being placed around the audience members. The audio track of the movie is then mixed in a five channel format for reproduction in such an environment.
The utilisation of a system such as that in FIG. 1 is thought to provide for enhanced spatialization capabilities of an audio track. The five channel format allows a listener to experience a degree of spatialization due to the “mix” previously encoded. Hence, the audio format of FIG. 1 has become quite popular.
Unfortunately, the arrangement of FIG. 1 has a number of drawbacks. For example, where an audience member 2C is located near to one of the speakers then the speaker source 7 is likely to drown out the other speaker sources. As a result, the spatialization effects will be substantially lost. Further, the degree of spatialization that can be provided to the audience is limited as a result of the limitations of the choice provided by a five track arrangement.